Space Is the Place, John Szwed
Space Is the Place, John Szwed
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Space Is the Place
The Lives and Times of Sun Ra

Author: John Szwed

Narrator: Leon Nixon

Unabridged: 16 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/09/2021


Synopsis

Considered by many to be a founder of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra—aka Herman Blount—was a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, entrepreneur, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn. He recorded over 200 albums with his Arkestra, which, dressed in Egypto-space costumes, played everything from boogie-woogie and swing to fusion and free jazz.



John Szwed's Space is the Place is the definitive biography of this musical polymath, who was one of the twentieth century's greatest avant-garde artists and intellectuals. Charting the whole of Sun Ra's life and career, Szwed outlines how after years in Chicago as a blues and swing band pianist, Sun Ra set out in the 1950s to impart his views about the galaxy, black people, and spiritual matters by performing music with the Arkestra that was as vital and innovative as it was mercurial and confounding. Szwed's listeners—whether they are just discovering Sun Ra or are among the legion of poets, artists, intellectuals, and musicians who consider him a spiritual godfather—will find that, indeed, space is the place.

Author Bio

John Szwed is the author or editor of many books, including biographies of Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, and Alan Lomax. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 2005 was awarded a Grammy for Doctor Jazz, a book included with the album Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax. A former professor of anthropology, African American studies, and film studies for twenty-six years at Yale University, he was also a professor of music and jazz studies at Columbia University, and served as the chair of the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Philadelphia with his family.

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